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Thu, 24 May 2018 19:28:53 +0000Joomla! 1.5 - Open Source Content Managementen-gb Friedrich Kuhlau – Lulu (1988)http://theblues-thatjazz.com/en/classical/2634-kuhlau-friedrich/9574-friedrich-kuhlau-lulu-.html
http://theblues-thatjazz.com/en/classical/2634-kuhlau-friedrich/9574-friedrich-kuhlau-lulu-.html Friedrich Kuhlau – Lulu (1988)

The great magic opera Lulu from 1824, Kuhlau's operatic masterwork, is based on the same source as Mozart's Die Zauberföte, namely the fairy-tale Lulu, oder Die Zauberflöte in CM Wieland's collection Dschinnistan. The Persian prince prince Lulu is the equivalent to Tamino who sets Sidi (Pamina) free from captivity of the evil wizard Dilfeng (Sarastro). The Ouverture, starting without any slow introduction, contains three individual themes: the furious first theme in D-minor, repeated in D major at he end, depicts Dilfeng and his evil spirits. The second and third themes for woodwind accompanied by cello obligato and a horn solo respectively are lovely melodies reffering to Lulu and Sidi. --- encyclopedia.mitrasites.com

Friedrich Daniel Rudolf Kuhlau (11 September 1786 – 12 March 1832) was a German-Danish composer during the Classical and Romantic periods. He was a central figure of the Danish Golden Age.

He is immortalized in Danish cultural history through his music for Elverhøj, the first true work of Danish National Romanticism and a concealed tribute to the absolute monarchy. To this day it is Kuhlau's version of this melody which is the definitive arrangement.

During his lifetime, he was known primarily as a concert pianist and composer of Danish opera, but was responsible for introducing many of Beethoven's works, which he greatly admired, to Copenhagen audiences. Considering that his house burned down destroying all of his unpublished manuscripts, he was a prolific composer leaving more than 200 published works in most genres.

The volume devoted to Czech conductor Karel Ancerl is one of the best of EMI's variable Great Conductors series. With the exception of Shostakovich's Festive Overture (not one of his indispensable works), the focus is on Czech composers, thus the set doesn't even attempt to sample the full range of Ancerl's wide musical sympathies. But he was such a superb conductor of Czech music that it's hard to get too upset about the skewed repertoire, especially when we get magnificent performances of neglected music that deserves wider hearing, such as Otmar Mácha's Variations on a theme by and on the death of Jan Rychlik.

Mácha used a flute piece by his friend Rychlik as the basis for a work of originality and power. The poetic opening soon gives way to mounting intensity that reaches a climax at the midpoint, with a Till Eulenspiegel-like flute cowed by raucous trombones and orchestral explosions. After another orchestral climax featuring steadily pounding timpani comes silence, followed by the flute's feeble pipings, a picture of spiritual devastation if ever there was one. Considerably lower on the scale of music we in the West have missed out on is Iša Krejcí's Serenade for Orchestra, an attractive, light, three-movement work with bouncy outer movements and a pretty Andante featuring some lovely string melodies.

More familiar is Viteslav Novák's tone poem In the Tatra Mountains, heard in the first recording Ancerl made with the Czech Philharmonic he led for 18 years. It's full of atmosphere and gorgeous scene-painting, especially in the woodwinds, although the dry, constricted 1950 engineering robs the climaxes of their full impact. Ancerl's intensity and wide dynamics help Janácek's Taras Bulba make a stirring impression, with eloquent winds, brawny brass, and white-hot strings vividly captured in wide-ranging 1961 stereo sound.

The second disc focuses on Ancerl's international career, opening with Smetana's Vltava (The Moldau) in a Vienna performance that downplays its anthem-like aspects and stresses lyricism. A live Dvorák Eighth Symphony from 1970 with the Concertgebouw is nothing short of sensational--brilliantly played, each movement characterized without idiosyncracies, brimming with rhythmic life that keeps the music moving and lends it sparkle. (Ancerl fans already may have this on Volume 2 of Tahra's "Edition Karel Ancerl" series.)

Another live performance, Martinu's Fifth Symphony with the Toronto Symphony in 1971, is on a level similar to the Dvorák; Ancerl's rhythmic alertness and care with balances lends transparency to a busy score that sometimes can sound too dense. There's an Old World gentleness about Ancerl's caressing Larghetto that's captivating, and while you can imagine the final Allegro played with a touch more animal vigor, it's still quite exciting here. A stomping Dvorák Slavonic Dance makes a stirring close to a well-transferred, generously timed (155 minutes) set of brilliant performances. --Dan Davis, ClassicsToday.com

"Scheherazade was another Ansermet specialty that suited his flair for color and clarity of instrumental lines. He recorded it three times; this is his second, the fruits of Decca's first Paris stereo recording sessions in 1954. Despite the date, the sound remains remarkably good and Ansermet captures all the moods and colors of the work."

The Ernest Ansermet volume is one of the best of EMI's Great Conductors series. It includes terrific, well-chosen performances, only a pair of which are clearly bested by the competition. Those are the Bartók Concerto for Orchestra and Rachmaninov's Isle of the Dead. Just about everybody's had a shot at the Bartók, so Ansermet's version with a less-than-virtuoso orchestra and a tendency toward understatement is at a disadvantage when set against the idiomatic Bartók of Dorati (Philips), the warmth and personal flair of Bernstein (Sony), and the mysteries of Kubelik (Orfeo). The night music of the Elegia movement is played more for color than foreboding and the trombone Bronx cheers in the Intermezzo never have sounded so matter of fact as here. So in a market crowded with excellent versions, Ansermet's very good one doesn't finish in the money.

Ditto for the Rachmaninov, where the objectivity that served him so well in modern music and the flair for color he exhibited in the Russian repertoire don't quite bring out the deep darkness of Rachmaninov's brooding score. Those lapping waves that run through it could be from Beethoven's Brook in the Pastorale Symphony rather than Rachmaninov's River Styx. And, as in the Bartók, the typically French timbre of the orchestra tends to work against the grain of the music. Reiner (RCA), Ashkenazy (Decca), and Rachmaninov himself (RCA) come closer to the mark. Ansermet's are fine performances that just miss the top rank.

Everything else in this set gets a clear, resounding 10 for performance. Ansermet long championed Stravinsky, and his version of the Chant du Rossignol rivals Reiner's classic Chicago version; and in its color, inner detail, and boldly projected rhythms it beats out Stravinsky's own recording of the complete opera from which it derives. The 1956 stereo sound here is absolutely amazing in its transparency and vivid presence, a tribute to Decca's engineers of the period.

Scheherazade was another Ansermet specialty that suited his flair for color and clarity of instrumental lines. He recorded it three times; this is his second, the fruits of Decca's first Paris stereo recording sessions in 1954. Despite the date, the sound remains remarkably good and Ansermet captures all the moods and colors of the work, from the tensions of the outer movements to the rich vein of languorous Orientalisms that are found throughout. I especially like the contrasts of the third movement, The Young Prince and the Young Princess, where he brings out the sweet tenderness of the opening and clearly delineates the ravishing wind decorations that act as halos for the strings. The quiet, percussion-punctuated march-like section that follows is brilliantly projected and Ansermet's solo violinist plays with an unusual degree of emotion and freedom. Scheherazade is another of those standard pieces apparently recorded by everyone with a baton, and there are many excellent versions, from Reiner (RCA) and Beecham (EMI) to recent ones such as Robert Spano's (Telarc), but Ansermet's 1961 recording is among the top half-dozen and this one's as good, lacking only the full spaciousness of the later recording.

The rest of the items here are about as self-recommending as it gets--an elegant Debussy Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune, a sparkling Ravel La Valse (which, like the Stravinsky work, he premiered), and a scintillating Fète Polonaise from Chabrier's Le Roi malgré lui. All three are on anyone's short list of the best performances, though the Ravel is an earlier recording than the more familiar later one. It was made in 1953 with the Paris Conservatory Orchestra and while the mono sound is good, it's not nearly as spacious and vivid as his later version. The Chabrier is a perfect finale to the set, a bubbly reminder of Ansermet's incomparable LP collection of that composer's orchestral music. My only complaint, and it's a minor piece of nit-picking, is that the selections reinforce the tendency to pigeonhole Ansermet as a Franco-Russian specialist when he encompassed a far wider repertoire that ran from Bach to Martin and included some fine Haydn and Beethoven recordings. --Dan Davis, ClassicsToday.com

With its first dozen releases in the 'Great Conductors of the 20th Century' series EMI Classics ally themselves with the same gold standard as the Philips 'Great Pianists' series. I wonder how many more are to come after the first barrage. The classical newsgroups will be rocking with the usual debates about why one conductor was included and another waits disconsolately in the steppe. Why was this or that version chosen over another? I do not want to be left out. More of that anon.

Argenta was born on the Northern Atlantic coast of Spain at the small fishing town of Castro Urdiales (about the same size as Brixham in Devon, UK). It is not far from Santander. He studied in Belgium and Germany after beginning his conservatoire studies at the age of thirteen in Madrid. His wartime prentice years in Germany were possible because of Spain's and Franco's special relationship with the Dritte Reich. Argenta promptly left Germany and returned to Spain when allied bombs fell too close for comfort. In 1946 he became chief conductor of the Spanish National Orchestra. His interpretations of Spanish and French music were well regarded.

His recordings include a Symphonie Fantastique with the Paris Conservatoire Orchestra, a reputedly exhilarating Tchaikovsky 4 (LSO), he conducts the LSO in the famously OTT Campoli Tchaikovsky violin concerto (reissued on Beulah 3PD10- how we miss that label) and serves similar duty, this time with the LPO, for Katchen's Liszt piano concertos.

He recorded a great deal of Spanish music. All the usual suspects are there. Turina, Rodrigo, Guridi, Usandizaga, de Falla, Halffter and Granados all get a look in. His Ravel also includes Pavane, Rapsodie Espagnole and Ma Mère l'Oye. I am sure I recall these appearing on Decca Ace of Diamonds LPs with the ADD prefix (how those prefixes resonate: SRCS, VIC, ACL, ADD, SXL, ASD etc!). Maurice Ohana's early Lament for the Death of a Bullfighter was also recorded. There are upwards of twenty Argenta LPs of zarzuela by Vives, Jimenez, Serrano, Breton and Chapi.

I am not sure what has been done in Spain but so far as the wider European and world market is concerned, Argenta has not received the sort of methodical adulation and 'reissuitis' accorded to the likes of Kubelik, Silvestri and Markevich let alone Stokowski and Walter. This set is a major step forward for his reputation.

The Argenta Faust Symphony is furiously virtuosic, oozing fiery conviction and bringing you up short with artistic parallels that would never have occurred to you without Argenta's attack. I defy you not to think about Tchaikovsky's Fifth and Manfred when you hear this. This is the original version without the chorus in the Mephistopheles finale and Argenta gave it its first recording.

The slowness of Argenta's Great C Major is the first thing that hits you and I can't say I like it. This does however accentuate the quick tumbling Brucknerian climax at 4.19 and the quicker tempi chosen for the later movements. In the andante the precisely limned steadily ticking beat works well. The scherzo is roughened and tartly brusque. This is not in my view an extraordinary Great C Major nor for that matter was the last Ninth I reviewed - that of Boult and the BBCSO on the now sunken Beulah label.

It is rather a shame that Argenta's El Amor Brujo follows just after the Schubert. The Schubert symphony is the only thing here to be in stereo and its sound is pretty good as is that for the Liszt. The de Falla is the oldest recording in the set and its string tone is a mite splintery. Odd, too, that it was recorded by the Paris Conservatoire Orchestra when Argenta's own orchestra the Orquesta Nacional de España would have been a more natural choice. However the invitation came from French Columbia and he had to dance to their tune. As it turns out the orchestra are on good mettle. This is a superbly spick and span interpretation of a work which I have long adored. By this I do not imply that it is too regimented. It finds time to stretch and wonder, for example in the Pantomima in which de Falla wrote an angel's gift of a tune. Here the massed violin tone takes off some of the sheen. As for the mezzo, Ana Maria Iriarte, she is perfect, with guttural hues to catch the smoke-roughened gypsy throatiness. There is hardly a trace of vibrato. She is a cut or two above the flawed Ines Rivandeneyra recently heard by me in Markevich's 1966 recording on Eloquence. She also takes great care with the shaping of the words (printed in full in Spanish and trilingual translation) and their meaning. When the suite finished I immediately played it again - such was the effect of this recording on me. In time it might even displace my perverse and aberrant preference for the Russian CFP licensed performance on CFP 40234 with Arvid Jansons conducting the Moscow Radio SO. The mezzo is Irina Arkhipova. But before you go looking for it bear in mind that it is an LP and that the sound is surprisingly scrawny in places.

Both the Faust and the Alborada are recorded in the present set in close-up vivid sound with more hiss evident in the Faust than the Alborada. The Alborada has some of its brashness and brilliance bled away by the 1950s engineer's decision to pull back on the recording levels for climaxes.

The notes are informative and thorough as you would expect from Alan Sanders. I owe it to Mr Sanders that I can tell you that the Cento Soli was a contractual pseudonym used at different times for the Lamoureux, the Paris Conservatoire or for a pick-up orchestra. The trilingual notes are contrasted with five wonderfully grainy and articulate photographs courtesy of Toni Argenta. The recordings are licensed to EMI by Decca, Musidisc and EMI France.

Lisztians need to hear Argenta's Faust. His El Amor Brujo is perhaps the best ever. This set has attractions transcending fogeydom and 1950s nostalgia. ---Rob Barnett, MusicWeb International

Six CD box that contains an unrivalled collection of 100 favorite ballet classics. Music featured from: Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, The Nutcracker, Don Quixote, Romeo and Juliet, Cinderella, Spartacus, The Age of Gold, La Fille Mal Garde, Apollo, Tales of Beatrix Potter, Serenade, West Side Story and many others. EMI Classics.

]]>administration@theblues-thatjazz.com (bluesever)100 Best BalletSat, 17 Mar 2012 14:23:56 +0000100 Years of Classical Music CD1http://theblues-thatjazz.com/en/classical/1782-20th-century-masterpieces-100-years-of-classical-/6392-100-years-of-classical-music-cd1.html
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